Sacrifice

by Graham Masterton

Charles Krogh long ago promised he would never get involved with intelligence work again. But now he feels a familiar tightening in his heart... an exhilarating, alarming feeling that he was once more a player in that vast invisible game without rules, the game of deception and bluff and sudden extraordinary danger--the game without which the world can never be safe... or at peace.

Peace. Each world power has its own version. Now, events are being shaped which will totally alter the international balance of power, with far greater and more devastating effects than ever before.

The experts, men and women like Charles Krogh, take their positions. Some will live... some will die. Players and opponents in a struggle for the future of humanity. Win or lose, their lives are all a SACRIFICE.

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fiction

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Graham Masterton was born in Edinburgh in 1946. His grandfather was Thomas Thorne Baker, the eminent scientist who invented DayGlo and was the first man to transmit news photographs by wireless. After training as a newspaper reporter, Graham went on to edit the new British men's magazine Mayfair, where he encouraged William Burroughs to develop a series of scientific and philosophical articles which eventually became Burroughs' novel The Wild Boys.

At the age of 24, Graham was appointed executive editor of both Penthouse and Penthouse Forum magazines. At this time he started to write a bestselling series of sex 'how-to' books including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. His latest, Wild Sex For New Lovers is published by Penguin Putnam in January, 2001. He is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Woman, Woman's Own and other mass-market self-improvement magazines.

Graham Masterton's debut as a horror author began with The Manitou in 1976, a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. It became an instant bestseller and was filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens and Ann Sothern.

Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear.

He has also written horror novels for children (House of Bones, Hair-Raiser) and has just finished the fifth volume in a very popular series for young adults, Rook, based on the adventures of an idiosyncratic remedial English teacher in a Los Angeles community college who has the facility to see ghosts.

Since then Graham has published more than 35 horror novels, including Charnel House, which was awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America; Mirror, which was awarded a Silver Medal by West Coast Review of Books; and Family Portrait, an update of Oscar Wilde's tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger in France.

He and his wife Wiescka live in a Gothic Victorian mansion high above the River Lee in Cork, Ireland.

Reviews

[Adam Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, let me say that this novel is not the sort of novel I get into and I would have known that if I would have read what it was about. Since I never do this, I have only myself to blame. I am a Masterton fan and I respect this book greatly but I did not get much enjoyment out of it. For horror fans familiar with Masterton novels like Spirit, Prey, Ritual, and The 5th Witch, this is nothing like those. The only similarity is Masterton’s trademarks of graphic sex descriptions and violence. Just to show you why I personally did not care much for this book and why I don’t like most books like this, here is
A sentence from Sacrifice: “In an unexpected display of solidarity and industrial intransigence, every major union had called for “indefinite” strike action against the government’s social and economic policies.” Now here’s my quote after I read that sentence. “Uhhhhhhh,” only with a lot more u’s and h’s than I am willing to type. I just don’t like stuff about war if it is from the perspective of the people in charge like presidents and so on. If it is a book about war from normal people’s points of view, I would relate to it more but a lot of it just went over my head in this book and I lost interest half-way through. Again, I don’t think it is a bad book at all and it did have some interesting parts such as a guy getting his face ripped off of his…face? Skull? And a thoughtful form of interrogation involving a bare-breasted gorgeous woman, a meat-grinder, and an erect penis.
Also, just some advice to any girls out there if you have a second. If you are dating or are married to a male character in a novel by Graham Masterton, Stephen King, Richard Laymon, or Edward Lee, they will probably cheat on you. Sorry, I am losing my thought of train.

[Victor Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

En realidad le pongo 3.5, es una novela muy entretenida aunque no es el mejor thriller político de Masterton, Ikon es mucho más loca y aventurera. Aquí vemos la historia de decenas de personajes a ambos lados del telón de acero mientras se va descubriendo un plan conjunto entre USA y la URSS para repartirse las zonas de influencia, y que le den a UK, a la que traicionan a la mínima. Claro que Thatcher se merecía eso y más. Aún con todo el rollo espionaje, GM no puede dejar de meter esos elementos de terror y gore como el de un asesino soviético deforme que trocea a todo dios con un cable metálico o el siempre fiable sexo para persuadir o torturar, con una dominatrix teutona (y tetona) como uno de los personajes más memorables. Además ¿En cuántas novelas de Robert Ludlum le clavan la cabeza y los huevos a la pared a un personaje en un local de BDSM? Caso cerrado, señoría.

[Ninjakicalka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brak chęci do czegokolwiek. To się właśnie stało, kiedy sięgnęłam po książkę zaufanego autora bez czytania opisu. Niestety, tym razem nie wyszło mi to na dobre.

A dlaczego? Mam już dość polityki na co dzień, żyję w tym bagnie codziennie, a tutaj Masterton postanowił z tym tematem poeksperymentować. Brak jest innych wątków, jedynie pomysły na morderstwa były ciekawe (jakkolwiek to brzmi) + jedna absurdalna, ale mocno zarysowana, konkretna postać.

[Carlotta Horrace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very chilling note on what is happening even today.

I first read this book in the mid eighties, just after returning from being stationed in Germany... WEST Germany as it still was then. So this book has an enhanced meaning for me. At the time I found it interesting as a fascinating hypothetical.

I found it frightening and depressing almost forty years later, in light of everything that is happening in Ukraine. I keep thinking to myself "Doesn't ANYONE remember Poland in 1939 (??!)" Doesn't anyone realize the price for indifference and isolationism?

Have we really learned so little?

[Edward Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this one and just stopped about 25% in. I love GM, but I prefer his horror to this political novel about the Cold War and the shadow underground that wants to destroy Capitalism and push the world into the "red" - The writing is typical Masterton will tons of sex, interesting kills, and some fleshed-out characters but not what I wanted. I guess I really need to read the back of the book before I start next time as the Audio Book said one thing and the story was another.

[Trent Hunsaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only beef is that the book sufferes from American characters speaking in British jargon - something that happens with all of Masterton's American characters (in all of his work) .

[Joe Stamber · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of Graham Masterton's horror novels in my teenage years, I first read Sacrifice and his only other non-horror thriller (as far as I am aware) Ikon to see if I would enjoy his attempts at a different genre. As with Ikon, that I also read again recently, I enjoyed Sacrifice more in the 1980s than I did on this more recent reading.

Both novels have decent plots and feature Masterton's trademark style with no holding back on the violence or sex, although the former features much more than the latter in Sacrifice. The Cold War plot with all its skulduggery is played out by characters from the military, intelligence services, political spectrum and more, which tells it from every angle.

Loved it when I was younger, and kept the paperback for over 30 years knowing that I would read it again someday. Predictably, it didn't have the same impact this time as it did in the 1980s, but I would still give it 7/10 if I could, so I've rounded it up to 4 stars for old times' sake.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

hated the ending